Commissioner of Insurance State of Louisiana Jim Donelon
Louisiana Commissioner of Insurance Jim Donelon says a Florida-based company that writes homeowners insurance is leaving Louisiana and several other states because of an insurance crisis in Florida and not conditions in Louisiana.
Donelon says Florida-based insurer UPC announced last year it would be leaving Louisiana and several other states.
“They are departing on an accelerated basis now because the company has been taken over on an accelerated basis by their regulator there in the state of Florida,” Donelon said.
The company has about 36,000 policyholders in Louisiana and will stop renewing policies beginning next year.
Donelon said UPC was in trouble before Hurricane Ian devastated Florida in September. Donelon says Florida’s insurance market is in deep trouble.
“And as we speak they are going into another special session called by the governor this year to try to fix their badly broken market in Florida,” Donelon said.
Louisiana did not get hit by a hurricane this year, but Donelon says the fact that Ian hit Florida also hurts Louisiana policyholders.
“ What happened in Florida has caused problems for multiple companies doing business in our state and other coastal states,” he said.
Donelon added he is aggressively trying to get more insurance companies to move here. He declined to provide an estimate of the number of insurers who have left Louisiana but others estimate ten have left in the last year.
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